Lee: The novel follows these three characters who are on these individual yet intersecting journeys, if you could call it that, to figure out how they fit into the world. One of those characters is Cybil who is born in occupation-era Tokyo to a young Japanese woman and this French solider. They have this brief affair. This child is produced. Then this baby is subsequently adopted and brought to the United States by an American general and his wife. One thread of the novel follows Cybil from childhood to adulthood. The next major character is Cybil's daughter, Chole, who the narrative follows as she's trying to remake a home in the wake of her marriage dissolving. I'll try not to give more away than that. Then there's Beau who's Chloe's best friend. He's shepherding Chloe through this period of time in which she's grieving. At the same time, he's trying to reconcile his own romantic failing and rekindle this relationship with a man from his youth. All three characters are really united is this quest, I suppose you can call it, to isolate some sense of identity or belonging, however romantic that notion may be.